No piece of equipment goes through more than your glove. Practice after practice, game after game, season after season, your gamer is there for every warm-up toss, every diving play, and every post-game dogpile. It’s the first thing you pull out of your bag when you get to the field and the last thing you put away when you’re packing up.
That’s why we take our Easton custom fastpitch gloves seriously. We launched the Easton custom fastpitch glove builder to make sure that your glove is uniquely yours, just like your game is uniquely yours.
But what exactly makes a custom softball glove better than one off the store shelves? And what makes Easton’s custom gloves a cut above the rest?
We put together a few thoughts on what makes a custom glove so valuable for softball players, and we’ll outline a few of the ways that we craft your Easton custom to outperform anything else on the field.
How Custom Gloves Improve Your Defense
Designing an Easton custom glove is about more than just picking your favorite colors and getting your name stitched on the thumb (although that part is pretty fun 😉). It’s about getting a gamer that’s precisely tuned to the way that you play.
For example, if you play third base, you may be using an off-the-shelf infield glove like this great Morgan Stuart Signature Series model. This is a terrific glove, to be sure, but let’s say you know your team’s shortstop likes to shade toward third base, allowing you to play a little shallower. That means you’ll be seeing a lot of hot shots that require quick reactions and steady hands. You’ll probably even want to sacrifice a little bit of transfer speed if it means having better odds of taking away a line-drive double or attacking a short hop to your left.
You need a glove that’s small and lightweight – maybe with the same 11.75-inch frame -- but with a deeper pocket than most infield gloves. With the Easton Custom Glove Builder, you can design this unique glove that’s perfect for your needs.
Getting a custom glove for fastpitch helps you feel more comfortable and confident in the field. In turn, that helps you play aggressively and make the spectacular plays that can be the difference between a run and an out. Building your custom glove ensures that your gamer is perfectly built for, well, your game.
What Makes Easton Custom Gloves Special?
Easton gloves have powered some of the game’s best players for years. Powerhouse college programs like UCLA, Alabama, and Arizona all use Easton custom gloves, and some of the game’s biggest names like Jen Schroeder, Morgan Stuart, and Haylie McCleney have chosen Easton to launch their signature glove lines as well.
Our glove crafting philosophy is about blending two things: performance and comfort. We make every custom glove with only premium reserve steerhide leather, which is renowned for its ability to maintain its shape over time without sacrificing feel or protection. Using higher-quality leather also helps your glove last through multiple seasons of use, so it can adapt as your game changes.
Each Easton custom glove also features an adjustable wrist-strap, which means you can guarantee a perfect fit no matter your hand size or shape. That, combined with the leather palm liner and special Quantum Closure System, give you a glove that feels natural and is easy to handle in the field.
What Design Options Are Available for Easton Custom Gloves?
First, you’ll pick which position you play – we have custom glove patterns for infield, outfield, pitcher, catcher, and first base. After selecting your size, you’ll be directed to pick a pattern. Your glove’s pattern can also be called its shape: some patterns are deeper or wider than others, and obviously catcher and first base patterns differ from the rest of the field.
For the main leather shell, you can choose between 18 different colors; you can even pick different colors for your palm, back, and web! You can also select a color design for your embroidery, which defaults to the Easton “Screaming E” logo.
From there, you’ll be able to customize your welting, binding, stamping, and trim – this is where your creativity really comes into play! You can also customize your glove’s embroidery on the thumb and pinky, where you can put your name, your motto, or anything else that fits within the character limit.
Every glove that comes out of the Easton Glove Builder is unique – when you’re finished, be sure to share yours and tag us @EastonFastpitch!
When Will I Get My Easton Custom Fastpitch Glove?
Some custom glove brands can take months to ship, but our custom gloves typically ship in about six weeks. You’ll be hitting the field with your custom gamer in no time!
After your glove arrives, you can spend a little time breaking it in and getting familiar with your new leather. For break-in tips, you can check out this blog post from our partner brand, Rawlings.
Well, there’s nothing more to wait for! Head into the Easton Custom Glove Builder now and start designing the fastpitch softball glove of your dreams.
